All's OK that Ends Badly

So the 2008 season is over for my beloved Angels. And many Angel fans are tearing their hair out and gnashing their teeth at how we didn't make it out of the ALDS...again. To these fans, nothing less than winning the World Series is acceptable.

On many levels I understand that sentiment. First, it is the proper attitude for players to have throughout the season. Can you imagine a big league ballplayer being interview in May and saying "Well, I think as long as we make the playoffs I will be satisfied"? That guy would be benched or hounded off the field.

Second, it is a valid point that the ultimate goal of any season for any team is, by definition, to win the World Series.

However, I think this attitude, especially when carried PAST the season, is improper, and can be detrimental to a team. Look no further than the New York Yankees. We all know that any year they don't win the World Series is indeed regarded by players, fans, and management as a dismal failure. They EXPECT to win the World Series every single year. That's nice and all, but it also puts tremendous pressure on the organization. Pressure is not of itself a bad thing, but when that pressure leads to boneheaded moves like pitching up aging pitchers and players in the quest to win today by mortgaging your tomorrow, then it can become a problem.

The fact is, you really cannot build a team for the post season. There is just no comparison between a 162 game schedule and a 5 game elimination series. Baseball is not engineered to be decisive over a single small set of games. The very fact that unlike football where you have the same QB in almost every game, you rotate starting pitchers over 5 games means that a small series is highly skewed.

The post season is about gathering together a bunch of good teams (who have proven it over 162 games) and then seeing which one gets hottest at the right time. That's it.

The fact that the Red Sox beat the Angels 3 games to 1 means little in the scheme of things. Replay that same series five more times and no one can accurately predict what would happen those 5 other times.

As such, the goal of any team should be to make the post season. That is the goal. After that, it simply becomes a matter of luck in a manner of speaking. You make the post and then you see if you are the team with the hot hand. If you don't make the post, then you don't even get a chance!

As such, and as a longstanding Angels fan who has suffered for 36 years with decades of really bad Angels teams, I am mroe than satisfied with the way 2008 has turned out.

The Angels won their division. That's way cool. Yes, it was a weak division. But who cares? We won, and we get to hang another division banner in our yard. Hell, I want that yard covered in division banners!

We won 100 games. 100 games doesn't get you to the World Series, but it is a franchise record. That's pretty cool.

We had the best record in baseball. No, the divisions are not equal, and so one could argue that our 100 wins does not compare to the Rays 97 wins (or whatever their ending total was), but still, it is the best in baseball. That means something (and, by the way, the Angels kicked butt against the AL East this year as well).

We also had an Angel set a major league record for most saves in a season. Argue all you want about how meaingful or meaningless a save is, the fact remains that we got the record, and like the single season strike out record, the record books will have the team name Angels next to that entry in the record books. I like that!

And let's look at the ALDS itself. Was there a blowout? Nope. In no game were the Angels out of it. In no game were the Angels humiliated. There was no 12 to 2 HR barrage by the Red Sox against our team. The scores were 4-1, 7-5, 4-5, and 3-2. No game was separated by more than 3 runs, and even that game was a 1 run game until the 8th inning. In every inning of every game the Red Sox fans were biting their nails as much as Angel fans were. Every game was measured on the thickness of a hair. The Red Sox outscored us by a margin of 1.25 runs per game. I don't know how much closer you can get it.

The fact is that the Red Sox got some breaks, and they played more consistent baseball, especially on defense.  But there are still positive things to look at from the ALDS and going forward.

Howie Kendrick sucked. Let's face it...he did. But towards the end he relaxed and started hitting. That bodes well for next ALDS. He is not likely to be as nervous or anxious.

And yes, Howie's defense was atrocious. But I remember a certain Chone Figgins whose defense in an earlier ALDS against these same Red Sox was the worst I had ever seen. Even worse than Howie's was this year. But did you see Figgins now in this ALDS? His defense was spectacular. He made several game saving plays and didn't muff a single ball.

Howie will play better next time (he couldn't play any worse!). That comes with experience in general and in the post season. 

And we did finally win a game. You might say "big deal", but the fact remains that the Angels no longer have to hear over and over again about a 9, 10, or 11 game post season streak of losses to the Red Sox. The current post season loss streak to the Red Sox stands at precisely 1 game. I can handle a 1 game loss streak. And we won it at Fenway. That's no small deal. Naysayers cannot even point to the game we won and say "well it happened at home, but you can't come into our park in the post season and win", because the answer is "yes we can"!

So, in closing, I say it was a very good year to be an Angels fan. A very good year indeed, and I look forward to facing Boston in the post season in 2009. There is a very good chance that will happen, and I am pretty confident the Boston fans won't want that to happen, given how closely we played them this year.